This invention relates to a method and apparatus for selective high speed sequencing of radial lead components onto an endless conveyor, transfer of the components to an insertion head, and insertion of the components into the holes of a printed circuit board.
In the past, different methods and types of apparatus have been devised for sequencing, transferring, and inserting components of the above described type. These prior methods and apparatus, however, handle the components by their bodies or by at least two leads. When components were handled by more than one lead, adjustments (requiring "down-time") needed to be made in the equipment to handle different center-to-center lead spans.
Further, prior art devices of this nature used shuttles to pick up a component from one of a plurality of supply stations and transfer it to an insertion assembly. According to the distances between the supply stations and the insertion assembly the shuttle would have to travel variable distances and therefor require variable travel times. Because of this, prior art devices were also limited in the amount of supply stations that could reasonably be added to the machine.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for handling radial lead components of different center-to-center lead spans, in which several functions are performed in parallel, thus providing time sharing handling of the components.
It is another object of the present invention to provide transfer apparatus for a sequencing and insertion machine in which all of the transfer means are incrementally moved a fixed amount, with time sharing, thereby reducing transfer time.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an expansible sequencing transfer means having a fixed incremental movement of transfer.
Other objects of the invention will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter.
The above outlined objectives are accomplished by means of sequencing, transfer, and insertion apparatus which, according to the present invention, generally includes an endless chain conveyor for clamping and carrying radial lead components by one lead only, and a plurality of supply stations for loading the components onto the conveyor chain in a preferred sequence during incremental movement of the chain. In timed relation to the incremental movement of the chain, a Rotary Transfer Assembly unloads the sequenced components, rotates and transfers the components to a Linear Loader, which unloads the Rotary Transfer Assembly and loads an Insert Assembly for insertion of the components into a printed circuit board in a preferred orientation.
Also, in the disclosed embodiment, the length of the endless conveyor chain may be increased and the number of Sequencer Loading Heads may be increased to provide a larger number of different types of components for sequencing and transfer.
Although more transfer stations are incorporated into the present invention than are used in the prior art, these various transfer mechanisms are used on a time sharing arrangement to provide faster population of a printed circuit board by the insertion apparatus.
Also, by eliminating the need for the insertion head to rotate to pick up a component, the population of the printed circuit board is much faster.